Chapter 48
Just as quickly as she had been pitched out of it, Ingrid was welcomed back into Sailor Loeffler’s orbit. It felt like she’d been trapped in cold, dark space for a time and was now finally being enveloped once again in the verdant warmth of planet Earth.
Her whole being relaxed in relief.
Although she was living in her own house, she was over at the Loeffler mansion more frequently than ever, and, so acutely aware of all she had regained, Ingrid soaked everything in.
The lunches, brunches, and dinners. The invitations to spa days and shopping excursions.
Every minute she spent in Sailor’s bright light was a moment of pure joy.
Sailor no longer asked Ingrid to do any spells, and occasionally, Ingrid would catch the girl watching her with a pensive, thoughtful expression, but she never said anything.
The weekly deposits reappeared in her bank account, and Ingrid continued to do post-yoga psychic meditations and the odd reading whenever Sailor had time.
So all was well that ended well, as Edie might have said.
Miles seemed glad to have things back to normal. He couldn’t argue with having the bills paid and a full fridge, and all he ever said before Ingrid walked out the door to see Sailor was “Be careful.”
She wasn’t sure what she was going to do about Rill.
As best she could, she tried to avoid him, but it wasn’t entirely possible.
Sailor kept inviting her to Tuesday dinners, to cocktail hours at the Fairburns’ or the Hawkes’ or the McIntyres’, and even Cas’s birthday dinner out at the yacht club.
And Rill was always certain to be in attendance.
There were other moments, too, when their paths crossed.
Times at the mansion when Rill would be coming down the stairs or rifling through the fridge or on the phone in the front hall, when he and Ingrid would bump into each other.
In those instances, their eyes would catch, and Ingrid’s mouth would go dry.
He always said something innocuous like Nice to see you, Ingrid or Fancy meeting you here, but his eyes sent an entirely different message.
As for Cas, now that Rill had installed him in the Savannah Sauce offices, on track to become CEO of Savannah Sauce, he was hardly ever around.
Ingrid wondered if Rill had succeeded in pulling Cas away from everything else he loved, like his church.
It was impossible to know. Like Scoot, the subject of Cas seemed to be off-limits with everyone.
She periodically tried texting her sinner.
Where are you? I miss talking to you.
There was never any reply.
On an early weekday evening, Ingrid was over at the house helping Sailor decide between the dozen dresses her stylist had pulled for the rehearsal dinner.
She was heading down the front steps of the house, on her way back home, when she spied Cas stepping out of the family Rolls.
Dressed in a charcoal suit and sky-blue tie, hair combed neatly, he was almost unrecognizable to her. She stopped, gripping the handrail.
“Hi, Cas.”
“Ingrid.” He crossed the sidewalk. She was a few steps above him, looking down at him. The sunlight hit his brown eyes, turning them molten. “How are you?”
“I’m well. Just helping Sailor pick out a dress.” All of a sudden, she felt like she had the worst case of heartburn in the world.
“Another dress,” he said. “Just what she needs.”
She regarded him coolly for a long moment. “It’s her wedding, Cas. It’s an important day to her.”
He shook his head. “Sorry. That was rude. I’m nervous, I guess.”
She felt a stab of annoyance. “Why would you be nervous?”
He gave her a sidelong look. “I haven’t exactly … treated you the best, I guess.”
She lifted her shoulders, neither in agreement nor disagreement.
“I guess I was thinking … I’ve been worrying you might want to get back at me.”
“Get back at you?” She caught his gaze. “You mean with magic?”
He swallowed. “Would you? Could you?”
“No.” She shook her head emphatically. “Cas, I would never. I don’t know … maybe if you got to know what I actually do, I wouldn’t seem like some kind of green-faced monster out of a child’s fairy tale to you.”
He shook his head, and now he was looking at her in a new way. “I doubt it.”
“Excuse me?” She lifted an eyebrow.
“I think you are what you are, Ingrid, and you should stop trying to make yourself smaller. Or more palatable. To anyone.” He took one step up.
One step closer to her. “I think you are scary, actually. But not like a monster. You’re scary in the most interesting way imaginable.
And I think you should embrace it. That’s all. ”
She felt the slam of her heart against the wall of her chest with so much force that she thought it might knock her over.
“You like that? To be ordered around by someone?”
“By you.” Now he smiled—the old, familiar grin that transformed him from sad man to sunny, carefree boy.
But he’d made his choice. He was living the life Rill had chosen for him. And she was not part of it.
“I should go,” she said abruptly. She stepped down to the sidewalk just as he stepped up.
“It was nice to see you,” they said at the same time, then both smiled.
“We should go to dinner sometime,” he said.
“Should we?” Ingrid bit the inside of her lip. “What would your dad say?”
“Maybe I don’t care what he says.” He looked a bit sad. “Will you go to dinner with me?”
She smiled. Her heart soared now, even though she knew she should be careful. “I’d love to.”
With the wedding just around the corner, preparations were moving at a fast clip.
It seemed like there was still an endless list of things to do.
Thankfully, Sailor had rehired the wedding coordinators she’d fired, a harried, hapless woman named Francesca and her alarmingly haughty assistant Courtland.
They promptly assigned Ingrid a list of errands to run.
With the mayor’s blessing, they planned to close down the entire northern half of Forsyth Park for the ceremony, with a cocktail hour immediately following.
The reception dinner was to be held at Saint Bibiana at the Bardo Hotel.
Dancing would take place later on Monterey Square, which the mayor had also agreed to rope off from the public, but only until three a.m. the next morning.
Months earlier, Francesca the coordinator had floated the idea of several high-profile celebrity pop stars performing, but both Scoot and Rill had vetoed the idea.
As far as Scoot was concerned, no one was going to outshine her daughter.
And Rill wasn’t about to shell out the equivalent of a medium-sized Eastern European country’s GDP to some diva flown in for the night.
They’d compromised with three alternatives—Chicago (Rill’s favorite) would play a half-hour set, then Earth Wind I just couldn’t bring myself to admit it.
I was so hurt and angry, but I just couldn’t face the reality that my mother is …
that she’s not really a mother. So I took it out on you.
” She gazed at Ingrid, her eyes clear. “I was wrong, Ingrid. And I’m so sorry.
You truly have a gift. And even after how I treated you, you used that gift to benefit me.
I can’t thank you enough. You’re the best friend I’ve ever had. ”
Ingrid blinked in surprise. An image flashed before her, rose-tinted and in slow motion, like a dramatic movie: The three of them, Sailor, Cas, and Ingrid, gathered around a massive, twinkling Christmas tree in the Loefflers’ drawing room, toasting their friendship.
Thanksgiving, in the kitchen with the chef, sampling endless dishes, laughing and sipping cocktails.
Lazing on the deck of the Tybee house, lulled to sleep by the sound of the rolling waves.
She had won. She had aligned herself with the power of the universe and manifested her will. She would always love Edie, but now, at last, she was a part of a real family.
She sat in the chair, so close to Sailor, feeling every inch of her body pulsating with that power. Her veins pumped it through her body, her lungs breathed it like air. She moved in alignment with the universe and with the Goddess. There was nothing she couldn’t do.
Cas was right. She was scary.
Scary enough to face down both Scoot and Rill Loeffler. To protect Sailor and Cas, when the time was right. And to finally fix the things that had been broken when Edie was in her place, in the Loefflers’ world. To finally make things right.
She was ready to do it all. More than ready.